In Poplar today the children read their atmospheric free verse poems. I was astounded by the use of adventurous vocbulary, the figurative language and the way the children used their voices to convey the message of the poems. Well done, I am very proud of your work. A selection is shown below.

As I told the children, it has been an absolute pleasure to teach them this year and I will miss them all so much. I am, however, leaving them in the very capable hands of Mrs Smith and Mrs Boot. Have a fantastic Easter everyone and thaank you for your very generous gifts!

Mrs Lee x

Children in Poplar had a brilliant Science and Technology week with some fascinating activities including bridge and tower building, erupting volcanoes and forensic science workshop. Have a look at our great photos below which tell their own story!

Who can remember the chemical symbol for carbon dioxide?

Having spent 2 days tucked up in our chrysalides,  we were moved today into our new and more luxurious habitat. We will still spend another 7-14 days, tucked up safely while we metamorphose into butterflies.

Hopefully we will come out to see the children before the Easter holidays, if not we will be going home with Miss Dearing!

Will Dodger be the first to hatch?

This week’s star writer is Callum S, who blew us away with his persuasive advert. A perfect blend of technical information and humour, with a very professional twist.

He performed his advert to the class, and to some of the visiting mum’s, who were here for the MAGS day, receiving rapturous applause and spontaneous laughter! Delivered with confidence, effective and enthusiastic expression and clever pace!

Here is the final script!

Right now I am driving a hero, a luxury machine, made for one or the whole family, which won the most influential car award in 1999.

It has a 4 cylinder engine. Anyone guess what it is? Hands up…

YES! It is the new Ford Model T. It has great powerful breaks and is ready to roll.

It has the most flashy headlights and comfy leather seats, costing just $999.99 to buy!

Go to your closest Ford dealer today or look at our website www.Ford.co.uk/Model T

T&C’s apply, participating dealers only, must have license to buy.

Call 01245595959 to find out more.

Ford – Wheels to Victory!

We loved his use of slogans and rhetorical questions and all agreed we would be persuaded to buy one.

(Note – website and phone number are fictional, and the Model T is no longer in production – sorry to disappoint you)

This week we all turned detective to take part in a forensic workshop.

We demonstrated excellent teamwork skills, looking at clues and evidence to solve a crime.

We set up or crime scene, surrounding the area with yellow tape to prevent contamination. We also hunted for finger prints, DNA samples and footprints to help us narrow down a suspect!

3 out of our 4 groups correctly identified the criminal! But we won’t tell you who it was, in case it spoils it for the rest!

It was a real test of our thinking and reasoning skills, plus it was also great fun! 

As part of our science week investigations we made simple yet effective lava lamps.

We discussed how and why the different materials behaved the way they did and were all amazed at just how easy they were to make.

Here’s how to do it, in case you want to try it at home:

You will need:

Vegetable oil

Water

Food colouring

Salt

A clear cup or container

What to do:

Fill your cup with water (3/4 full)

Add food colouring (about 5 drops)

Fill the rest of the cup (1/4) with vegetable oil (or similar)

Sprinkle salt in the top

Watch what happens …

 

Can you explain the different effects or reactions?

 

On Wednesday we were lucky enough to have a visit from a parent, Mr Hills, who is an engineer with E2V. He came in to talk to the year 5 pupils about his job and some of the work the company do. We were fascinated to find out just how widespread the products that E2V have designed and manufactured are; Being used in telescopes that can see into space, equipment for drying your food and machines used for treating patients in hospitals. We look at pictures of some of the machines and were even set an engineering challenge (which may come in useful for our bridge building competition on Friday – Don’t give anything away year 5!)

Thank you very much to Mr Hills for giving his time to come in and speak to us and for being so well prepared; with a colourful slide show and props!

We had lot’s of questions, and really enjoyed the talk, I am sure one young man was very proud of his dad!

Big news today! Our caterpillars have now started to form their chrysalides (Miss Dearing had to check the plural for chrysalis!).

Naturally Dodger (class favourite) made it to the top first and was already safely tucked inside his chrysalis when we arrived this morning, he was closely followed by Fagin. By the end of the day four of our little friends had built their cocoons (Nancy and Bill were busy all day). Now the only one left to transform is little Oliver.

Hopefully he will build his chrysalis over night.

After this stage we will need to wait 2 days (to make sure the cocoons are strong enough) and then it will be time to move them into their net!

 9:00 3:306:00

Monday 14th March!

Miss Dearing came into school to find our caterpillars heading for the top. They have finally decided that it is time to transform.

They are, nearly, all hanging from the lid of their pot, the first stage of their transition into a butterfly!

Exciting times ahead over the next day or so! morningafternoon

Hello again.

Our caterpillars (PINE) are now a week old and are getting very big. If you look closely you can see some fine webs and lots of spots where they have shed their skin.

Small spikes are growing on their backs and we have noticed two slightly different patterns, some have white spots on their backs – we think these might be the males, as we know that generally in nature the male is the more colourful of the species. We will need to look this up to check – what do you think?

We are also starting to notice different personalities – one of our caterpillars is much more active than the others and is often near the top of the pot!

We should try to give them names (I am thinking – Dodger, Oliver, Fagin, Nancy and Bill Sykes – Dodger would be our climber).

 I think Dodger is looking at us!